


Forum

by orphan_account



Series: Counted [3]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Epilepsy, Establish Relationship, M/M, Mental Institutions, Morgan loves Reid, Seizure, Seizures, Snuggling, Team Bonding, absence seizures, circa season 2, domestic Morgan and Reid, forum discussion, mommy's boy, morgan loves diana, morgan meets momma reid, post Elle's departure, postictal, postictal nausea, pre-drug addiction, seizure disorder, simple partial seizure, spencer is nervous, spencer's mom, team on the jet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 04:39:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3161546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following a seizure on the jet, and feeling vulnerable, Spencer concedes to Derek's suggestion of visiting his mom with him to tell her about their relationship and finds Diana completely taken with his choice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The flight ran smoothly, taking the team of fatigued agents back home, safe in the knowledge that another man was behind bars and being held accountable for the hurt he'd caused seven separate families across New York city. Gideon had spent some time running over the case as a unit, identifying their own strengths and weaknesses as well as pointing out earlier gaps in the timeline when the unsub was under their noses. Overall he thanked them all for their dedication to yet another hard week in their positions.

JJ had secured herself in a quiet corner of the jet with her computer and files, working to minimize the amount of paperwork she'd be saddled with once they landed back in Virginia. Gideon and Hotch played a silent game of chess, locked in a battle of intelligence and the ability to read one another perfectly. 

On the sofa, Spence reclined against Derek's chest, his feet curled up beside him at an awkward angle, with his head tucked in beneath Derek's chin. Derek's hand ran up and down Spencer's thigh in a soothing motion, and he closed his eyes, despite being anything but ready for sleep, as he talked with Spencer.

"I do want to be with you when you tell her." He said, with annoyance noted at how many times they'd had this conversation.

Spencer gave a measured sigh. "I don't want that." 

"She's your mom, Spencer." Derek peered at Spencer's head through one eye. "I want her to see who takes care of her baby boy." He smiled and heard the intake of breath that Spencer took in a quiet snort.

"She's..." Spencer searched for words. 

"I know." Derek responded and pulled Spencer a little closer. "But she's your mother and if she's important to you then I want to help you tell her the news. I want to see her face when she sees how happy you are." 

Spencer shook his head, his hair tickling beneath Derek's stubbled chin. "No, mmm..ah." Spencer stopped mid sentence, his words filtering off as though it took huge task to speak, and the gasp he made was loud, catching everyone's attention in the otherwise quiet jet.

In Derek's arms, Spencer's right side began to jerk, slowly and localised to his bicep at first before causing his upper body to jerk into Derek's chest, taught and uncomfortable. 

JJ looked frightened, memories of witnessing Spencer having a tonic clonic seizure sprang instantly to mind. "God, Spencer, are you okay?" Spencer's neck jilted into Morgan's collarbone and his facial expression was fixed on a frown of discomfort as his body remained tight and contracted.

"Give it a minute." Derek said evenly. He listened to the repetitive clicking noises as Spencer's tongue lapped back and forth against his throat in a seizure-induced swallowing motion. He kept his arm around Spencer until finally his muscles worked loose. When he felt Spencer push himself up to sit straight, stretching his back and arms out, he loosened his hold. 

Spencer ignored the eyes - he knew it would take his colleagues a long time to adjust to what he lived with daily - and turned his face to Derek's chest to groan loudly. Derek rubbed his hand along Spencer's spine and exhaled a sigh. "You good?" 

Spencer nodded, "I'm fine. A little nauseous." He worked free of Derek's arms again and pushed himself to his feet. "I'm going to the bathroom." As the toilet door clicked across behind Spencer, Gideon looked to Morgan for answers. 

"Is he okay?" Gideon asked sincerely. Derek nodded his head, trying to avoid the inevitable sad expressions and questioning. They came anyway.

"What was that?" JJ asked, concerned. 

"A simple partial seizure; a localised area is hit with seizure activity and gathers a mind of its own for a few seconds. It's usually over pretty quickly." Derek explained and used the opportunity of movement to his body to grab himself a coffee. 

"Happen a lot?" JJ pursued her line of questioning.

Derek nodded his head again, "Less frequently than the absence seizures, but more often than not, they're a daily thing."

"At work too?" She continued.

Derek nodded as he sipped at his coffee. "I've seen a few, there's probably ones he gets on with alone too, same as when he checks out." He said with an offhanded nonchalance that he knew Spencer appreciated but that JJ clearly found heartless.

"What about that one..." JJ went on, squirming at the recollection. "...when he hit his head?"

"Tonic clonic." Hotch supplied, catching Derek's facial expressions. 

"That was bad. Does that happen a lot?" She asked, not taking any hint from the change in speaker. 

"No." Derek picked up again. "Once every six months, if that - they're not his typical seizure type. If they happen frequently, it's usually an indicator for an issue." He returned to his spot on the sofa as JJ absorbed her new found knowledge. 

"The partial simplex ones..." JJ waved her pen as she spoke.

"Simple partial." Derek corrected with a smile.

JJ blushed at the slip. "Are they painful?" 

Derek mused a moment. "I never asked." He answered and realised the oddity of her question wasn't so odd at all. "I know they're annoying - they freeze him in practical tasks which is a pain." 

"They come with auras, like the tonic clonics?" Gideon asked, aware suddenly he'd never had a forum to really discuss Reid's epilepsy status on a personal level, his knowledge had all been medical and some snips of practicality from Reid himself.

Derek shook his head, "all the books I read up on said they did, Spencer says they just strike, best warning he gets with them is they start more gently than they intend to be so he has time, albeit seconds, he let go of anything dangerous." 

JJ frowned and almost felt awkward butting in another question, but felt it necessary. "Aura?" She asked. "Like a sensory awareness?" 

Derek drained the last of his coffee and nodded toward JJ. "Hours ahead sometimes, he'll get headaches, nausea, stomach pain, dizziness or hallucinations. It all preludes one epic fit. Luckily, like I said, they rarely happen, but when they do he's left lethargic postictally for a good while." Derek recalled the seizures of that magnitude he'd been present for and it made him shudder. He placed his cup down and rose to his feet. "I'm gonna..." He gestured toward the cubicle door and turned his back on them all to check on Spencer. 

He knocked the door twice and pushed his face close. "Spence?" 

"I'm fine." Spencer's reply was muffled by the engine sounds and thin door. 

"You still peeing or something?" Derek asked quietly, joking in his tone.

"No."

Derek smiled at the terseness of his reply. "Coming out? We're only an hour out of Virginia." He waited a moment, ready to repeat himself, but stepped back when he heard the toilet flush and taps begin to run. After a moment, the door clicked open. Derek gave a small, concerned smile for his pale faced partner. "You puked." He accused and Spencer leaned forward until he rested against Derek's chest and then nodded his head. Derek's arms wrapped around him immediately. 

"I want to go home." Spencer whispered, closing his eyes. 

Derek slowly walked Spencer back to the couch. "As soon as we get sorted, I'll take you straight home." 

Quietly cradled to Derek's chest, the postictal nausea and mild confusion subsiding, Spencer took slow and steady breaths, trying to relax himself. The case had worn him down, sleeplessness had made work even harder and the conversations he and Derek had been having - centering on telling Spencer's mother about their relationship - was weighing heavy on his mind. He sighed, realising he'd held his breath a while, and looked up at Derek from his position on his chest. 

"I do want you to come." He said, plainly. "When I visit Mom next, I want you to come." 

Derek tightened his arm around Spencer's side. "Of course."


	2. Chapter 2

Derek waited patiently in the driver's seat, without removing his seatbelt, for Spencer's convulsing right side to relax. Spencer's head pulled back uncomfortably, neck exposed, and his throat hitched with strangled breaths for almost forty seconds before the seizure began to fade and released its tight grasp on his muscles. He breathed unevenly, flexing his back and neck as his body slowly relaxed. 

"You okay?" Derek asked softly, hand reaching out to touch Spencer's thigh. 

Spencer gave a nod, breathing through his nose to abate mild nausea, keeping his eyes closed until it subsided. After five minutes grace, Spencer took a steadying breath and looked across at Derek. 

Derek fixed his sunglasses on and unbuckled his seatbelt. "Ready?" 

Spencer drew his lips in for a moment and then released them. "Yes." He nodded firmly and unhooked his belt. He climbed from the car and tucked his hair behind his ears. 

He fell into step beside Derek and led him along the sun washed path to the main doors of the institute. It looked grand and inviting not telling to the troubled minds who lived inside. Derek stared around in awe at the size of the building as Spencer led him through large corridors and grand staircases until he found the floor he needed. He hung back on entering the room, though, standing in the doorway seemed so much safer.

"Doctor Reid, it's good to see you again." Spencer and Derek turned in unison as a smiling going woman in a well kept nurses uniform approached from a room behind them.

"Hello." Spencer smiled awkwardly, loitering in the doorway of the large, decadent lounge stacked with books and high-backed chairs. It looked to Derek more like the smoking lounge of a rich man's home rather than the communal lounge of a psychiatric facility.

"Are you coming in, or would you like me to ask Diana to join you outside?" She asked with a smile that founds its way easily to her green eyes. She looked kind, Derek considered, the perfect kind of person to work in this field. 

Derek placed his hand in the small of Spencer's back when he saw him faltering. "We could just sit in here." He answered for him with a smile he hoped echoed the nurses. 

"Great," she smiled impossibly brighter. "That's great, she loves the reading lounge so much that being able to share it with you would probably be more meaningful to her." The nurse lead inside and Derek urged Spencer to follow. 

They walked a few paces behind her and stopped just shy of the slight step up to the window seat where Diana was sitting, basking in the sun that shone through the large, etched window. 

"Diana?" The nurse stood before her, a hand gently bracing Diana's arm. "Your son is here." She said keenly and pointed back to where Spencer stood awkwardly with Derek just behind him. 

Diana looked round and slowly began to smile as she recognised her son. She got quickly to her feet and held open her arms. "Spencer!"

Spencer climbed the small step and allowed his mother her embrace, returning it loosely with his arms round her hips. "Hi, mom." 

Derek smiled, waiting for his invitation to join them. He thanked the nurse on Spencer's behalf as she excused herself and stepped up onto the platform when Spencer broke the hug with his mother. 

"You remember Derek Morgan?" Spencer asked, lips emphasising his words clearly.

Diana nodded and held her hand out to Derek. "Of course I do." She said plainly. "Good to see you again. I hear a lot about you from Spencer's letters." 

Derek shook her hand firmly. "Likewise." He said with a smooth, charming smile.

Diana pulled back her hand and invited the boys to sit on the seats opposite her own. Derek sat first, then Spencer lowered nervously into the vacant chair beside him. Leaning over, Derek urged Spencer to relax in a whisper and then straightened up, smiling at Diana again. 

"What brings you here?" Diana asked, eyes scanning her son's every inch, memorising him. "A case?" Spencer shook his head, about to elaborate, when Diana frowned deeply at him. "Spencer, you really have to gain a little weight..." She remarked. 

Spencer raised his brows. "A weekend free." He corrected, then pushed his face into a doughy smile. "I wanted to see how you are."

"Yes. Good, I'm well, Spencer." Diana smiled. The way she moved her mouth made Derek smile, he recognised the over pronunciation that Spencer did too. 

Spencer nodded, his discomfort not easing. "That's good." 

"And you, Special Agent Morgan? What brings you here with my son?" She asked, "Are you working?" 

Derek glanced to Spencer, waiting for something like approval to answer honestly. Spencer shook his head and shrugged. Derek reached out and touched his arm. "I wanted to spend the weekend with Spencer, here, and..."

"Oh." Diana looked squarely at the two men and her brows quickly rose. "You're in a relationship?" She asked. "Spencer I never would have assumed you were a homosexual." 

Her bluntness wasn't unusual but it made Spencer lose any viable comeback. His mouth bobbed open as he considered an explanation in reply and Derek drew his hand away from Spencer's arm. It had all come around a lot quicker than Spencer had anticipated. 

"Isn't the garden beautiful in the early summer?" Diana asked, glancing over Derek's head and through the window into the large grounds of the hospital, peppered with flowers, pergolas and trees awash with blossom. 

Spencer turned to look and then sat around again. "Very." He reply, evenly. "Mom? Maybe we could get a cup of coffee and take it out to the garden, talk a bit more privately." 

Diana scanned Spencer's face, "Good idea." She smiled.

 

-*-*-*-*-*-

 

Diana led Spencer and Derek to her favourite area of the expansive garden; beneath a large oak tree was a wooden picnic bench surrounded by garden ornaments and flower boxes full of colourful blooms. She sat and encouraged the boys to do the same, clutching a Styrofoam cup of coffee in her hands. 

Derek and Spencer sat on the bench across from Diana and listened to her detailed knowledge of the garden, the flowers and the history of the area with enthusiastic and warm smiles on their faces. 

"Of course, the garden doesn't fill me with nearly as much joy as the wonderful library, but I do enjoy the summertime out here." She remarked, looking lovingly at her son. 

"It is peaceful." Derek conceded. 

"Tell me," she focused her attention on Derek. "When did you realise my son was the love of your life?" Her eyes were serious and Derek almost caved under the graveness of her expression. 

"Honestly, I don't know. But he is, and he makes me happy, and I hope that that is enough for you." Derek said nervously. 

Diana's smile made Derek want to laugh, it came so suddenly. "It is." She nodded calmly. "Spencer is my perfect boy, treat him well." 

"He does." Spencer assured her. 

"Good." She said, reaching for Spencer's hand. "He ought to." 

Derek laughed at Spencer's cringe. "I promise, I take good care of him."

She touched her hand to her head and looked pained. For a moment Spencer thought she was losing lucidity for their visit but then she looked to Derek. "Don't let him neglect himself; a little less coffee, a little more sleep and his...episodes...should lessen." She said firmly. 

"He circles the airport a few times a day, but he takes his meds." Derek responded and Spencer winced, wondering if his mother's mind could manage Derek's nonchalant referrals. To Spencer's relief, she laughed. 

"I used to call him my little space cadet." She said fondly and reached out her hand to cup Spencer's cheek.

"I'll have to remember that one." Derek laughed lightly.

Their afternoon passed quietly; Spencer's discomfort eased and Derek felt incredibly fond of Diana. She recounted childhood stories of her son and spoke with such love, Derek forgot that they were sitting in the designed setting of an institution and not, in fact, visiting Spencer's mom in the grand home he'd once imagined Spencer came from. Derek took control of the conversation when, on two occasions, Spencer's consciousness waned and steered Diana into focusing on him with her reminiscent tales and her vast intelligence, giving Spencer time to return. If she had noticed at all, Diana made no remarks. 

Despite wanting to, Derek didn't ask about Spencer's father. He'd always considered that he he would, if and when he met Diana properly, but it didn't seem right. Spencer had always been vague about his life and it seemed to Derek that there were reasons why, not least because of his mother's mental state. So he kept quiet and felt satisfied in the fact that blessings upon their relationship had at least come from Diana and it brought a broad smile to Spencer's face that was enough to sate Derek's curiosity for a long time.


End file.
